These are very few and far between IMHO. It is hard to truly scare me now.
Some recent movies that have scared me are the Grudge movies. I know, I know, they are poorly shot (you could actually see the boom mic in one of the scenes from Grudge 2), but they still freaked me out so much I hated to sleep with the lights off. You just never knew where she was going to pop up, she made that super freaky creepy noise, and that little boy was just...**shivers**.
I really loved the first few Saw movies. Saw I you need to see just for the amazing ending that will freak you out. Saw II was actually very smart and my fav of the series. Saw III was also pretty good, and I confess I haven't seen IV and now V is out. I didn't think III quite lived up to II so I prolly won't be renting those.
A really spooky movie is The Others starring Nicole Kidman. It is worth watching with all the lights out. And since it has a twist ending you have to watch it again, and believe me, the 2nd time round is even spookier when you know what is really going on.
The Orphanage was also pretty freaky - don't let the subtitles keep you away.
Of course, one of the scariest was Stephen King's The Shining (even if he didn't like the film version - mostly, I'm sure, 'cuz the ending was radically different than the book). Remember, it was so scarey that Joey, on Friends, had to put it in the freezer. LOL
And really, remember all those cheesy movies where the babysitter gets creepy phone calls and it turns out the guy was actually in the house? I could never even think about those while I was babysitting - especially if the kids were asleep and their bedrooms were upstairs.
The reason I bring this up is that "Entertainment Weekly" has compiled their list of the 20 scariest films.
1. The Shining (1980)
2. The Exorcist (1973)
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
4. The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
5. Jaws (1975)
6. The Ring (2002)
7. Halloween (1978)
8. Psycho (1960)
9. Seven (1995)
10. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
11. Poltergeist (1982)
12. 28 Days Later (2003) - This is a MUST SEE - it's EXCELLENT!
13. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
14. The Thing (1982)
15. The Evil Dead (1982) - The sequel Evil Dead II was hysterically funny!
16. Carrie (1976)
17. Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
18. The Omen (1976)
19. An American Werewolf In London (1981)
20. Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (1990)
I don't agree with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That movie was just dumb. I liked the remake (with super hot, and I mean HOT, Jessica Beal) much better. One night in high school, on Halloween, my girlfriends and I had a sleepover and we rented this movie (the original). We freaked ourselves out for the first 5 minutes and then we thought it was incredibly stupid. lol
Believe it or not, I have never seen the original Halloween! I know, I have to! The only other one on here I haven't seen is #20. I'll have to look for that one.
Craig Warmbold and I had an arguement (perhaps you heard it) about Jaws. I thought it was very scary and he didn't. I know you don't see the shark much, but the tension in that movie is wonderful, and who doesn't jump a foot when Richard Dreyfus is underwater and the head rolls out of the boat he's looking into? He's crazy!